


A Bad Day

by orphan_account



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Threats of Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-22
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-10 16:49:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4399706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story is set during Episode 14. Rachel responds to Mr. Cutter's helpful suggestion that she works a bit faster.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Bad Day

A cheerful voice came over Rachel’s speakerphone, loud enough that the rest of the astrophysicists in her cubicle farm looked up. “Rachel, I’m still waiting for those radiation readings from the Sigma sector.” She winced as soon as she recognized Mr Cutter’s voice, and the rest of the scientists hurriedly looked back at their own computers, as if he could see them via the satellite link. His chipper voice continued, “I know we’ve been having some trouble with our sat uplink, but we have a very sensitive timetable here. If those aren’t on my desk by EOD, I’ll have you thrown off the top of the building. And I’ll make sure you go past my window so I can enjoy the view.”

Rachel was reasonably certain that was a joke. Her mind scurried through the possibilities. She had til the end of the day to get the radiation readings in. That meant Mr Cutter couldn’t have her thrown off the roof until after quitting time. Which meant he’d have to stay late if he wanted to see it. Mr Cutter wouldn’t stay late on a Friday night just to watch her certain demise, right?

Of course, he could always have it done Monday morning…

Rachel hit the side of her computer tower a bit harder than strictly necessary. “Come on, you top-of-the-line piece-of-junk! If I go down, I’m taking you with me.” The paperclip widget on the screen wiggled uncomfortably at the threat. Her Excel file - a set of mostly blank workbooks that served more as evidence of her failures than inspiration to continue - lit up as a pop-up window came from the mouth of the paperclip.

“We could fake the data?”

Rachel considered the suggestion. “We’d just be making things worse!”

“Worse, or better?”

Rachel looked around to see if anyone else had noticed the pop-up windows, but the rest of the astrophysicists were studiously avoiding looking in her direction. Mr Cutter’s displeasure was not a thing you wanted to associate yourself with. “Okay. We try my way til lunchtime. I’ll take a nice, long lunch. And maybe the sat uplink will have magically sorted itself out by then.”

The paperclip looked visibly relieved. Rachel couldn’t share in the feeling, but at least they had a plan. A plan that might _not_ involve a practical demonstration of the relative effects of gravity versus drag. She pulled up the garbled nonsense that the sat uplink had been feeding them, and started looking for patterns.

**Author's Note:**

> My real name is Rachel.  
> My real job is science.  
> I work really slowly.  
> I am relating way too hard.


End file.
